


Proper Channels

by misura



Category: Furious (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 09:57:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3687921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"We think someone's murdered Rich's neighbor," Dwayne says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proper Channels

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



Cadence orders apple juice; McKnight gets water. (Tap water, likely as not - it's that kind of bar.)

Dwayne and Rich have both ordered beers - possibly their first ones, ever. They look a little nervous, a little ill at ease, which Cadence would be a lot more okay with if she thought it had more to do with this place and less to do with the fact that she tried to kill them last time they met.

_Bygones,_ Dwayne had told her over the phone. _Seriously, don't worry about it._

(Dwayne is an idiot. Rich is worse. Neither of them should even be here.)

(She worries about it a lot.)

"Well, this is nice, isn't it?" Dwayne says. Rich scowls, and Cadence tries not to picture him as he might be two, three years from now, staggering home, drunk and bitter. Taking his frustrations and fears out on a girlfriend who has long ago convinced herself that all men are the same, and that at least Rich is not so bad. "All four of us together again."

"Are you guys even old enough to drink?" Cadence asks.

McKnight looks a little amused, when she glances at him, then stern and serious when Dwayne does it.

He's probably very good at playing good cop, bad cop.

"It's just a beer," Dwayne says. Rich tries to gulp down what's left in his glass. Fails. Coughs and sputters as Dwayne pats him on the back a bit, not helping at all.

"I've volunteered to deliver them home safely after this," McKnight says. "In my patrol car, if need be." Dwayne pales; McKnight winks at Cadence. "Of course, I'm sure that won't be necessary."

"My grandmother would kill me. For real," Dwayne says.

"No, she wouldn't." _She comes from the right place._ Dwayne's own words, less than two months ago, when he was talking about her and his grandmother both.

"Yeah, okay, she probably wouldn't." Dwayne gives easily. He'll bend before he breaks.

Cadence wonders how it will happen. "You said you wanted to see me." Wonders if there'll be anything she can do to keep it from happening.

Dwayne looks at Rich, who looks at McKnight, frowning. "You, not him."

McKnight raises his hands. "Just here as your friendly local police person. Besides, I felt I owed it to myself to make sure you boys wouldn't make me regret giving you that number."

_Thanks, Officer McKnight._

"We think someone's murdered Rich's neighbor," Dwayne says.

"So we figured like, maybe, you could come over to her apartment and investigate," Rich says.

Cadence doesn't sigh. Someone _might_ have murdered Rich's neighbor. Alternately, she might have just packed up and left without telling him. Still, "I really don't think - "

"That's good thinking, guys." McKnight radiates cheerful approval. "Not trying to do this yourself, but reporting it to the people who are supposed to handle those kinds of things."

Rich blinks. Even Dwayne looks a little bit taken aback.

McKnight whips out a suspiciously brand-new looking notebook and a pen. "Now, why don't you tell me everything you know, and I'll do some checking. I mean, wouldn't want to launch a murder investigation when the lady's just run off with an old girlfriend now, would we?"

Dwayne mumbles; Rich mutters.

McKnight takes their statements and promises to keep them updated before paying for their beers and whisking them off to be delivered home in time for bed.

 

"No hard feelings, I hope?"

"For not making me go over there and pretend to be a detective?" Cadence snorts. "Why'd you give them my number at all? They needed the police, not ... someone like me."

McKnight shrugs. "They asked. I figured it might be something like this. It seemed less trouble to give them your number than to pry it out of them."

"Less trouble for you, or less trouble for me?"

"Both," McKnight says.

Cadence thinks about changing her number. It wouldn't take much. "I have a date tomorrow."

"Good for you." McKnight smiles. "Not with another caped crusader, I hope."

"Just some guy." She could give McKnight his name. He'd probably run it through the police database, just on principle. Just in case. "He seems nice."

"Well, with the way you're gushing about him, he sure sounds it." McKnight grins at her. "Have fun on your date, Ms Lark. Be yourself for a while. The real you."

_The real me wears a costume and a wig,_ Cadence thinks, but what she says is, "Thanks. And hey, about Rich's neighbor - "

"Probably lying on a sunny beach right about now." McKnight gestures dismissively. "She's on vacation."

"What happened to her running away with an old girlfriend?"

McKnight shrugs. "That's just what had happened last time Rich reported one of his neighbors as a possible murder victim. I'd joke about someone needing to talk some sense into him, but ... "

"Some people are beyond hope."

"Very few," McKnight says. "In my professional experience. Most of them only need a bit of guidance, you know, a reminder of what it means to do the right thing."


End file.
